S.I. Hayakawa

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (18 July 1906-27 February 1992) was a member of the US Senate (R) from California from 2 January 1977 to 3 January 1983, succeeding John V. Tunney and preceding Pete Wilson.

Biography
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1906 to a Japanese family, and he graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1927, from McGill University in 1928, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1935. Hayakawa worked as a linguist, psychologist, semanticist, teacher, and writer after graduating, working as an instructer at UW Madison from 1936 to 1939 and at the Illinois Institute of Technology from 1939 to 1948. From 1968 to 1973, he served as President of San Francisco State University in California, and he became a member of the Republican Party in 1973 after leaving the Democratic Party. Hayakawa had already become well-liked among conservatives after he pulled the wires out from the loud speakers during a Black Power rally, and he was elected to the US Senate in 1976, defeating Democratic incumbent John V. Tunney. Hayakawa claimed that the United States had stolen the Panama Canal "fair and square" in 1976, but he supported its return to Panama; he also believed that the Japanese internment eventually worked to their advancement, and that they should not be paid reparations for their time in internment camps. During the 1982 Senate election, Hayakawa trailed behind in the polls and had monetary problems, forcing him to abandon plans for re-election. He died in Greenbrae, California in 1992.